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Tamas ‘Tomi Kid’ Kovacs wrote
history on Friday night when he
clinched the vacant World Boxing
Federation ligh theavyweight
title to become Slovakia’s
first-ever professional boxing
world champion with a unanimous
decision over Samson Onyango of
Kenya.
Although the three judges (Ernst
Salzgeber of Austria, Miklos
Döry of Hungary and Jan Sedlak
of Slovakia) had Kovacs ahead by
116:114 and 117:112 (twice), it
was probably much closer than
that. In fact, Onyango got into
it pretty well and from the
start showed that he meant
business.
The 32-year-old Kovacs, who
progressed from International
title level, adjusted in the
middle rounds and started to
collect the points that allowed
him to still keep a lead when
Onyango was coming on very
strongly in the final quarter of
the fight. In the 11th
round, with the Nairobi boxer
going all out, Kovacs looked
shaken, but fired on by his
frenetic fans he collected
himself to stay out of trouble
in the ultimate round. Although
hard fought, it was always fair
and Croatian referee Zvonko
Rukavina had a fairly easy
night. Supervisor was European
Coordinator Olaf Schroeder.
When the decision was announced,
the packed venue in ‘Tomi Kid’s’
hometown of Galanta rejoiced. It
was packed up until the roof
with 850 people and the
promoters announced that for
Kovacs’ first defence they will
be looking for a venue much
bigger. “We could have sold
three or four times the amounts
of tickets,” said promoter
Zoltan Petranyi.
At the after-fight press
conference, Onyango’s trainer
Joseph Akhasamba said he would
welcome a rematch and his boxers
effort was widely applauded. The
fight was televised live in
Slovakia and Laszlo Paszterko,
General Secretary of the
national federation was
similarily delighted:
“We thank the World Boxing
Federation for their support of
Slovakian boxing, we are very
happy to work with a serious
organization like them and hope
that this was the shot in the
arm to bring the sport to a new
level in our country.” Kovacs’
record now stands at an
unblemished 15-0 (10), while
Onyango fell to 19-5 (12). |
